once upon a time there was a online magazine, people came from near and far to partake of the information that grew on it's pages. then for some strange reason the magazine stopped growing. the people kept visiting the magazine only to find that it hadn't grown since late summer. the masses cried "change fair magazine, for the seasons are evolving, and your pages wonít be able to withstand the cold winter winds of progress". to which the magazine replied " ah, but I have strong roots which will ensure my survival." as months retired, visitors stopped coming to see the magazine, for it's pages had become stale and brown from too much viewing. the roots began to moan form the lack of fresh pages, for unripened pages supply the roots with more visitors, which means more nourishment. roots slowly began to decompose, eventually the magazine couldn't find the support to stand, as it fell the only sound that was heard was a groan of a "rare dragon"...

brian morris - 2002-01-24 Ė Experimental Magazine forum message

Two years later, the answer:

~ to those who waited so long for the new experimental ~

After more than two years of break, on March 15 2004 I decided I have to do something about the new issue, though almost nothing was ready: no articles, no contributors, no final design, just a few draft layouts and the will to redo the old concept, better if possible.

On April 5 2004 I announced the official ISSUE 4 deadline date and now, Friday 30 April 2004, I can hope to launch the new issue in good or at least acceptable terms.

Yes, you are right, the entire work for Experimental Magazine Issue 4 took about 46 days. Considering tomorrow is the deadline and I still have a lot to finish, you could add another 12 hours of work. But still, pretty fast, huh?
So then,

Why did it take so long? (I)

First of all, it was not quite easy to do a relaunch, the actual work time for experimental 4 meant 46 days of fulltime work (12hours/day). My friends know best, for 2 months Iíve been totally out of the circuit.
Second, I work great under pressure (posting the deadline on the front page of experimental.ro was the best strategy to keep myself motivated).
Third, letís find out together.

But first of all, how did it all started?

It all started in autumn 2000, while spending a nice evening with my girlfriend (at the time), Laura, discussing dreams and plans for the future.

I was presenting some ideas of an online magazine that could be different from the existing design portals, combining fashion editorials with artist features and some pretty original concept called chain of challenge. In a few hours after our discussion we had some first drafts of the concept. For a few months then, Experimental Magazine existed just as a few tons of notes with concepts and ideas which I kept throwing into a brown shoe box.

The next phase: six months of design, PHP development, refining concepts, preparing the articles. It took a lot because I did all the design and development work myself and I had no previous experience with a project of this size. Laura helped me with some texts and prepared the first challenge article (for Justin Fox Ė australianinfront.com.au).

On May 1st 2001 I launched Experimental Magazine ISSUE 1.
In July 2001 I launched ISSUE 2 with a slightly improved interface and few more additions to the background engine. Mircea Turcan and Irene Marx joined the team as news editors and they kept our daily news fresh and original since, they did a lot for this whole concept and I can never thank them enough.
In November 2001 I launched ISSUE 3. People got really interested in the magazine, I received huge feedback and support. The forum got pretty active (justme was the off-topic queen) and it soon became obvious that the community side of experimental.ro got quite separated of the magazine structure.
Everything was great and then everything took a break, until now. Two years for another issue?

Why did it take so long? (II)

When I started Experimental Magazine I was a 20-year old student and designer, working into the new media department of one of the biggest internet development companies in Romania (deuromedia), I was working part time so I had quite a lot of time for the magazine project.

In December 2001, immediately after launching ISSUE 3, I went on my own and since then I am self employed. I soon realized that it is impossible to maintain a project like experimental.ro while developing a self employed career, but I promised myself not to loose interest and do a relaunch as soon as I get on safe ground.

In November 2002 I started my own company and soon after (March 2003) I gave up 40% of the company to a business partner who took care of sales and clients. One year later I realized that it was the worst decision I could take. I donít want to get into details, but shortly: I lost one year of my life because of a wrong business movement.

Now I recovered and I am back on track.

I hope my short history file will make it clear how and why my big plans from 2001 had to wait that long to become reality.

The current issue is not exactly what I wanted to offer, there are still tons of notes and ideas in my shoe box, some of them will show up in the next issues of Experimental Magazine, so be sure you keep visiting this site.